Thaw
by Liralen Li
Summary: Old memories and dreams chill Fai to the bone, and only Kurogane can warm him back through. Set in the Chess country. Warning: Spoils through Celes Country and chapter 165


_Warning: Spoils through Celes Country and chapter 165 of the Manga. This is set in the Chess country of the last published book in the US._

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It was cold, that biting cold that ate into his heart. The cold made Fai's hands feel as if they should just drop off, attached as they were to the bitter iron bars. He'd been shivering for so long, his muscles and jaw ached and trembled some more. Hunger so deep, so long, so potent twisted his belly into a hard iron ball in his gut. He cried no tears because his tear ducts were dry, as parched as his mouth, throat, and skin. He knew he should not have been alive. Hungry for centuries, thirsty for years, his body should have died, along with that of his twin, lying lost amid the bones at the foot of the tower.

But he was not dead. He could feel Yuui lying there stunned by despair, in pain as deep and undying as his own; and worse yet, Yuui could have simply walked away from it all. If they had not been born as twins, loving each other as they did, he could have been free.

The magic welled deep within Fai, giving him life when he had no desire for it, healing frost-killed extremities when all he wanted was to die. He shook with the pain, with the cold, with the bitter deep rage at all that could not be changed. He tried to cry out, but his dry throat wouldn't let him, his impotence at even that made him shake with sorrow so deep, so hot, so hard... he woke up.

Fai sighed into the pillow, face down, as he always slept. It hid his face when he awoke, and he hoped muffled his cries when he was dreaming. But even facing the way he was, he could feel dark eyes upon him, watching and awake.

For a long moment, Fai ignored the intent boring into his back; but the cold in the dream was still upon him, making him feel heavy with regret and pain. It left him so cold he shivered even under his heavy blankets. With a quiet sigh, he turned his head to allow his one eye to see Kurogane's eyes open, watching him.

Hunger knotted his belly again, with his game, his prey in front of him, it was inevitable. Warm and alive, the scent of the hot blood flowing through Kurogane's strong body came to him like a promise through the night.

Fai closed his eye, and turned his face again into his pillow.

Then the hot scent of spilled blood sprang into the air.

Fai snapped to attention, his vampire's powers flared to life at the hot spurt from Kurogane's thigh.

"It'll just go to waste if you leave it," Kurogane said calmly.

Fai flowed over to the bigger man. He wanted to growl that Kurogane would die if he left it, but, instead he murmured, "What will we do with you, Kurogane?" He bent to the nicked artery, mouth closing around the sweet salt heat of Kurogane's life.

He felt the solid, strong muscles of Kurogane's leg shiver and tense under his mouth and hands. The blood flowed faster, spurting with each beat of the strong heart that drove it. The taste of Kurogane's blood warmed Fai with the gift of life direct.

Fai found himself cursing Kurogane in his head for making him connected this way. For making him remember that they were linked so thoroughly, his life on Kurogane's, forever. He suckled, swallowed, and licked deeply into the wound and along Kurogane's skin. He could feel the regeneration, the firming of cut flesh. Through his touch and saliva, he felt his vampire's powers working to heal his game's body, helping to keep Kurogane alive for another day; and, in doing so, helped insure that Fai would have something to keep him alive as well.

The healing powers made it necessarily for him to attend to Kurogane's wrist when he sliced those veins open as well. Without Fai's powers, the tendons and nerves in those areas would never heal whole. Their fights on the chess board would be much harder without Kurogane's full strength.

At least here, the healing was a relatively easy thing.

The flow slowed to a quiet trickle and then stopped all together. The skin knit and then healed without a scar, and Fai leaned his forehead against Kurogane's leg, his hands loosening their tight grip.

"Your hands are cold." Kurogane slid one of his big, calloused hands over Fai's smooth ones.

Fai's hands were never calloused, never scarred, the magic that had always been his birthright had always healed him. It had made sword training painful without gloves, as he could never build calluses the way others did. So his skin ripped over and over again with each practice session and fight, but now, with the vampire's powers they healed even more quickly.

Fai held himself very still at Kurogane's touch, as he wanted it far too much. "Cold hands warm heart, they say," he quipped.

"Do you have a heart, wizard?" Kurogane asked, sober, even as his hands rubbed warmth into Fai's slender ones.

Fai smiled up at the bigger man. "Of course I have a heart, here, feel." And Fai clasped one of the big hands against his throat, the strong fingers tightened against his pulse line. Fai suddenly swallowed. He had to close his eyes to keep his breath from shaking.

"I guess you do." Kurogane paused, and then stroked a touch down Fai's throat. "You've chosen sides."

Fai nodded a minute nod, knowing Kurogane would feel even the smallest of motions. "I will do what I can for the Princess, in any way I can."

"And the rest of us?" Kurogane asked.

Fai's still raw rage and agony flared, and he had to take a breath. "You may go as you please. Even the time witch said that that was so. Choose as you're able."

"And are you able, wizard, to choose?"

Fai was struck breathless by Kurogane's stroke. His eye simply opened wide to look up at the dark man. It hurt so badly he had to laugh, and the wide smile that had always served before came like a spell to his lips. The margin between his curse and his path was so small, sometimes he wondered if he'd only imagined that it was there at all. His princess had shown him, by choosing herself, by flinging herself with all her might at the edge of choice, when there seemed to be no room to move at all. She was why he had sworn to do what he could. And, in the back of his head was the thought that if he only dwelled on what he could not change, he would go mad.

The red gaze never left his face, even at the disarming smile. Fai leaned forward and said quietly against Kurogane's lips, "I choose as much as I ever have." He pressed a slow kiss against the unyielding mouth of the ninja.

Fai slowly teased a kiss across firm lips. It was at the soft touch of Fai's tongue against Kurogane's lower lip that finally triggered a reaction that was as sudden as it was thorough. Kurogane growled and pulled Fai's slenderness up against his strength and then kissed Fai deeply, thoroughly. Fai opened his mouth to the kiss and his mouth was invaded by Kurogane's tongue, dipping in deep, stroking his own tongue, teeth, and the roof of his mouth.

Then Kurogane sucked Fai's lower lip into his mouth and raked the flesh there with his teeth. Fai shuddered hard, pulling the bigger man close, his hands starting to stroke up the black t-shirt stretched over those muscular shoulders and scars.

"What do you want?" Kurogane deep voice asked, as Fai pulled the shirt over his head.

"Your heat, your warmth. I need you to thaw me through, I'm so cold."

Kurogane's hands pulled Fai's shirt off as well and then wrapped him up in an embrace, warm skin on skin, picking him up as easily as picking up a child, as easily as Kurogane had held him when he'd lost his eye. He sighed and leaned against Kurogane's strength.

"You're melting, wizard."

"I am, Kuro-san. I am."


End file.
